The Mokomoko Touch
by Salome Sensei
Summary: Why does Sesshomaru keep his now-adult mate Rin from touching the fur at his shoulder? This story unravels the mystery of the mokomoko in romantic, lemony fashion. Stand-alone story, but also fits within my Sesshomaru/Rin story arc.


© Salome Wilde, 2008

The Mokomoko Touch

Author's Note: This story takes place after about a year of an ongoing intimate and emotionally bonded relationship between Sesshomaru and Rin at age 18. I have written it as a stand-alone piece that requires no other background. (If you are reading my other Sesshomaru/Rin stories, I envision it chronologically fitting between my stories "Withholding" and "New Beginnings.") I will not continue this story, so do read the others if you like the implications of the relationship! 

By the way, will someone _please_ tell me where the tradition of calling it "Mokomoko-sama" comes from? It's not right for this story, but I absolutely love the idea that the shoulder fluff deserves use of the honorific!

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_Aha!_ thought Rin, a triumphant smile spreading across her tanned young face. Quickly, she turned away and reached down to pick a flower at the side of the path. She did not want to risk Sesshomaru's awareness that he had been caught. But there was no doubt about it now. She had seen. Oh, her mate was a deceptively sensual creature. And in such unique ways.

She had been curious for some time, but her observations heretofore had been inconclusive. The long walk today, however, had given her ample opportunity for concentrated study. They were in no rush, having set out that morning for the shrine to which Jaken made an annual pilgrimage. It was not even a full day's journey away from where they had been sojourning, and it was only at moonrise that the shrine would appear at the mouth of a cave in the mountainside. Rin wanted to do something nice for Jaken, who had been trying so hard to accept her much-changed relationship with his master. He was not succeeding particularly well, but he was making an effort. She knew he felt displaced and nothing she could say would change that. Perhaps something Sesshomaru could say would help, but he remained silent and obstinate. So, as a concession, she had persuaded Sesshomaru to escort Jaken with her to the foot of the mountain, that he might have their company along the way.

They were not particularly good company, of course, with Rin's mind and eyes so much on Sesshomaru and Sesshomaru's mind so entirely his own. Nevertheless, Jaken prattled on about the little shrine and how his powers were renewed and magnified by his yearly overnight residence in its mystical confines. As he pontificated, she subtly increased her pace and quietly caught up with Sesshomaru. Had Jaken noticed, he would no doubt have protested that she should must show greater deference at least to Sesshomaru if not to him and walk behind as she had done in the past. But he was rambling on and gesticulating in recognition of various landmarks that would bring them soon to the temple's path. And this left Rin to reach Sesshomaru's side and peek over at him surreptitiously.

She was shocked that it took only moments to confirm without question what she had long suspected. He was being very sly about it and probably always had been. She had never noticed the behavior as a child, and even a season ago she would not have spent time wondering about it. But now she was his mate and dying to know. Her eyes widened at the sight that allowed her at last to be certain: Sesshomaru was intentionally rubbing his cheek along his mokomoko—and getting pleasure from it.

Only one who was intimately familiar with Sesshomaru's experience of pleasure would dare hazard such an interpretation of the seemingly casual way his head brushed up against the luxurious white mass. Even Rin still doubted her ability to interpret the enigmatic inuyokai's emotions and moods correctly, despite the fact that in only a few seasons she had shared more intimacy with him than anyone else in his long life. But her doubts were quelled by the fact that their bond had magically produced the key to his soul: the ability to read him through his scent. And as he dipped his face into his fur, she absolutely smelled arousal.

As bold as she had become of late—walking beside rather than behind him, asking directly for what she wanted, even initiating sex a few times—she was not fool enough to make a comment about the mokomoko. Though the discovery of his pleasure in it was delicious to her, she knew firsthand that to embarrass Lord Sesshomaru was to risk even more than angering him. He was far more willing and able than she to sleep alone, and she had never met anyone as capable of extended periods of silence. No, she could not approach this directly. So, she kept her little secret to herself and longed for nightfall, when they would have time alone together and she would find some way to learn more about exactly what kind of sensory organ or limb the elusive mokomoko was.

Of course, she had touched the beautiful, furred ruff…on occasion. He had let her lay her head on it several times for comfort, she recalled. And once she had lightly stroked it, after they had exhausted themselves with lovemaking. It had made Sesshomaru shiver, but then he had withdrawn it as he had enfolded her in his arms. And that was all. During the day, he kept it wrapped around him, its tail flowing ostentatiously behind as he moved. At night, he rested with it beneath and behind him, out of her reach. And he always shied from having it touched, in either friendly or hostile fashion. In a less confident or masterful being, she might have surmised that insecurity or self-consciousness over its rather excessive appearance was the motive. In Sesshomaru, however, she hazarded two guesses: either he was protective of it, a prized possession to which even she, his mate, could not have access; or else it was so incredibly sensitive that he could not bear others to touch it. Perhaps both. Ultimately, it did not matter which turned out to be true. Had Sesshomaru understood human teenagers better, he might have let her touch it a little more. As things were, prohibition, coupled with his obvious personal pleasure in it, was setting Rin on the course to recklessness. And tonight was the night.

Rin's curiosity was overlaid with a frustrated covetousness as the afternoon wore on. Though she could not perhaps put it into words, she was jealous of his relationship with his own body part. She tried to distract herself by actually listening to Jaken's babbling, but it simply washed over her as she stared at the sensuous sway of the tumbling fur alongside the silken hank of Sesshomaru's hair. Though she had grown her own hair nearly to her waist, it would never be as thick or lustrous as Sesshomaru's. And he had the mokomoko, too! It was too unfair that she was so plain beside him. She struggled to control her emotions, as Sesshomaru seemed to do so effortlessly. It was just another way in which he was superior to her.

Suddenly, Sesshomaru stopped and turned to face her. His features were characteristically expressionless, but clearly he sensed her inner turmoil. She tried to think her scent into a calm composure but doubted she had succeeded in the slightest. She knew she could project her deepest emotions when she tried; falsifying them was another matter. Jaken, meanwhile, queried the reason for the halt. Sesshomaru neither replied nor moved as he stared into Rin's eyes. Rin blushed hotly and dropped her head. In response, Sesshomaru pivoted gracefully on a slippered heel and resumed their progress. Rin and Jaken followed silently behind.

Rin walked on, taking deep breaths to slow her racing pulse. Did he know she had overseen him? Inhaling deeply, she perceived suspicion in his scent, or was it annoyance? Far outweighing that negativity, though, she felt his overwhelming protective love. He might never express it in words, but Sesshomaru's aura made his feelings manifest, continually. That essence kept her connected to and enamored of him even when insecurity or envy threatened to undo her young heart. And once reassured in this visceral way, she could return to basking in the knowledge that she was the most cherished being in Sesshomaru's world. He had taken her as his mate, and she had accepted him with all the love in her soul.

When at last they came to the foot of the mountain as the sun began to set, Rin had resolved her conflicting emotions. Her restless mind had settled upon a plan: a touch of honest inquisitiveness and a large dose of seduction. She suspected that Sesshomaru could smell the eagerness in her, but he kept his usual impassive demeanor as they settled down to a hasty dinner (of which Sesshomaru, of course, did not partake). Thankfully, Jaken was soon on his way. Once out of sight, Rin posed herself before the fire. She lounged in semblance of comfortable ease, her long legs stretched before her, soft and creamy in the flickering light. Sesshomaru approached from the tree against which he had been leaning. He looked down upon his mate with his dispassionate daiyokai gaze. Rin smiled at his attention and, feeling emboldened, loosened her sash and let her kimono fall open. The tactic was obvious, but Rin had precious little knowledge of art of seduction and Sesshomaru had several hundred years of pent-up need.

He responded to her obvious offer by undressing before her in his languid, elegant way, tossed his mokomoko over his shoulder, and brought his body to hers. His lips pressed to her throat, and she let her head drop back in pleasure. She felt him bare his fangs to nip at her flesh. The ability to control himself and avoid hurting her was a beautiful gift and delight to her, and she threaded her fingers through his hair to draw him in closer. He bit down and she winced and moaned into the embrace. Her fingers trailed through his magnificent white mane and reached out to stroke the fur beside it. She felt it bristle and slip from her grasp as he exchanged his teeth for his tongue and began to lap at her neck. His mouth was an endless source of pleasure for her, wherever he placed it. Yet, she wondered at that moment how many times he had used his oral prowess to distract her from accidental contact with the mokomoko.

More actively, she reached out again to touch it, and this time Sesshomaru reacted strongly. He pulled back and brought himself to a sitting position across her thighs as his hand clasped her wrist. He turned her arm carefully but firmly and brought her wandering hand down to her lap. She looked searchingly into his eyes and murmured his name as a plea.

"Does it trouble you so much that I keep this part of myself from you, Rin?" Sesshomaru asked in his deep, emotionless voice.

Of course: he knew all. Rin swallowed hard and replied with a question of her own: "Must you keep a part of yourself from me?"

Sesshomaru was silent and still. Rin would never enjoy these tense moments, but she had come to respect their importance in achieving compromise between them. Sesshomaru was not given to speech and Rin was not given to silence. She knew he was collecting his thoughts and readying himself to communicate more openly. She treasured him for this effort and met his gift with her own quiet calmness as they looked deeply into one another's eyes.

"Rin," he began, always using her name in this formal fashion to begin his self-disclosures. "That which I keep from you is sacred to me. It never takes human form. It is the core of me, the repository of my most essential self. The inuyokai within me is stored in its length when I am not in my true form. Do you understand?"

"Forgive me, Sesshomaru-sama," Rin replied, abashed. She rushed on: "I did not understand, but I do now. I am not worthy to touch such a sacred part of you." She let her head fall forward and would have bowed and pressed her head to her hands if he were not straddling her body. Tears formed in her deep brown eyes.

Sesshomaru took a long breath and exhaled slowly. He brought his slender fingers to her chin and raised her face to his. "I have hurt you, Rin. I did not mean to do so. Through your scent, I feel the pain my words cause you. And your words reveal that I wrong you in keeping any part of myself from you merely because you are human. I have made you my mate and, therefore, you are worthy. You could not be mine and be otherwise." As he spoke, his scent flowed through her, offering reassurance, confidence, and desire. She hoped her grateful aura reached and touched him as deeply. He brought his cool lips to hers and kissed her. The human kindness of his gesture was overwhelming.

His gesture was accompanied, however, by more—by perhaps the most inhuman gesture she had yet known. Rin felt the tickle of fur at her waist. Sesshomaru's yokai flesh had trailed down and along his body to reach hers. As they embraced, it began to wrap slowly and sensuously around them both. She slipped her arms easily from her robe, and allowed Sesshomaru to take control. The unearthly combination of softness and firmness that came to gently encircle her hips, waist, chest, and shoulders evinced a gasp from her. Sesshomaru pressed her back into his furred embrace and she felt him shudder at the shocking newness of the shared sensation.

As he mounted and entered her, she felt stimulated in a thousand places at once, the fur rippling around and beneath her, all along her body. She could only assume that the same was true for Sesshomaru, who was uncharacteristically slow-moving, gentle, and sensitive to her every touch. She pressed her body into his and felt the furred length react, keeping them tightly intertwined yet allowing enough slack for him to drive into her yielding body with exquisite and tender force.

Sesshomaru rose onto his knees while remaining inside her, and his furred extension unwound and reconfigured its length to brush across and over her chest. Its lush weight caressed her breasts and teased her nipples as Sesshomaru looked down upon it and thrust deeply inside her. Rin moaned and reached out a hand to stroke the fur as it tantalized her, and Sesshomaru's reaction to her touch was immediate and intense. With each pass of her fingertips, he jerked and swelled inside her, his eyes unwavering from the hypnotizing movement of her hand upon his most sensitive inuyokai organ. She gently stroked and fondled as much of its length as she could reach as Sesshomaru urged them both on. He rode her with glorious abandon and brought them both all too soon to a climax which hurled them into separate worlds of indescribable pleasure that ended in each other's arms. 

Catching her breath as she lay in his arms, Rin offered a brief prayer of thanks to the gods that Sesshomaru had learned to sense when she was fertile each month, for they had agreed not to bring a child into the world together while she was so young and he was still so ambivalent about humans and hanyo. Each time he released his seed into her, she could feel the walls of his intolerance lower a little further. And now he had shared yet another part of his multi-layered body and soul with her. Still, her curiosity was hardly sated. Shifting their bodies so he slipped wetly from within her and came to rest on his back, she peered down at his still-erect shaft then up into his glazed, golden eyes. His mokomoko surrounded him like a lavish halo. Bending forward she pressed her face to it and inhaled its haunting musk. Sesshomaru trembled. Rin hastily made another silent offering of gratitude, this time for many hours they had until daybreak for her to begin to learn all the ways his mysterious organ could arouse and please them both.

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Note of Gratitude: A glorious belated thank you to my amazing husband for his willingness to be soundingboard and helpmate as I write my _Inuyasha_ erotica. He helped me articulate the uniqueness of the mokomoko here far better than I could have without his assistance. And he confesses that Sesshomaru is becoming his favorite character through my writing. (He's always been more an Inuyasha fan, and he likes Sango, too.)


End file.
